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Board to discuss proposed deer hunt and finances

By LEWIS DELAVAN

Staff writer

A proposed fall deer hunt for Nov. 1-Dec. 15 is among agenda items for the Hot Springs Village Property Owners’ Association board of directors work session at 9 a.m. tomorrow in the Ouachita Activities Building, Ponce de Leon Center.

Both the permitting and inspection department and the common property and forest committee recommend the hunt, according to a report compiled by permitting and inspection manager Beverly Ellison and assistant general manager Linda Mayhood.

The hunt would be regulated by the state Game and Fish Commission’s Deer Management Assistance Program, or DMAP, and is intended to reduce the deer population and improve the herd’s health.

From 2007 through June 2014, 361 deer-vehicle collisions in the Village had been reported to the police department.

Bow hunters would be required to attend hunter orientation that would be conducted in the Village by Game and Fish Commission officials. Other DMAP requirements are a current Arkansas hunting license and a current Arkansas Bowhunters Association card.

The license and Bowhunters card must be presented at orientation, and hunters would have to sign a liability waiver.

Hunters must donate their first harvested deer to Arkansas Hunter’s Feeding the Hungry. It would be the hunter’s responsibility to deliver the deer to the processor.

“The first hunt was held in 2009, with 162 deer harvested, of which 122 deer were donated to Arkansas Hunters Feeding the Hungry program,” says Ellison and Mayhood’s report.

In 2010’s hunt – which was divided into two seasons, one in September and one in January 2011 – a total of 231 deer was harvested, with 177 donated to Arkansas Hunters Feeding the Hungry.